The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C) is the world's first planetary meteorological observation satellite to unveil the mysteries of wind on Venus. It will explore the mechanism of the Venus climate by observing the atmospheric movement and cloud formation process. Ultimately, this mission aims to deepen our understanding of the formation process of the Earth's environment and its future by comparing Venus and the Earth.

JAXA would like to enhance people's interest in space and the Earth by holding a "message campaign" in which we invite people to send us messages that will be printed in fine letters on an aluminum plate and placed aboard the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI".

Location of plates and Aluminum plate image. Credit: JAXA

We will accept messages both from Japan and overseas so that we can bind the feelings and thoughts of everybody in the world into one, and inject it into the orbit of Venus. Through this campaign, we would like to boost the public's knowledge about Japanese space science research activities in Japan as well as abroad.

With the cooperation of the "International Year of Astronomy 2009 Japan Committee," we would like to carry out the "message campaign" to collect messages to be attached to the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27328From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 11-10-2009 07:31 AM
JAXA release

Venus Climate Orbiter "PLANET-C" Nicknamed "AKATSUKI"

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch the Venus Climate Orbiter "PLANET-C" in Japan Fiscal Year 2010.

JAXA has decided the nickname of the PLANET-C as follows.

Name: Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (meaning "Dawn")

Reasons for naming:

The name was discussed and decided by the PLANET-C project team.

"AKATSUKI" means "dawn" when Venus shines most brightly as the first graying of dawn appears in the east sky just prior to sunrise.

The AKATSUKI is scheduled to arrive at Venus, which beautifully shines as the "morning bright star" at dawn, in the winter of 2010. The name also reflects the purpose of the PLANET-C project to newly create planetary meteorology by exploring Venus. The word "AKATSUKI", which indicates the start of a day, implies not only a beautiful scenic image, but also the power of achieving a goal, thus the name carries the thoughts and determination toward the success of the mission.

By publishing the nickname well in advance of its launch, we intend to make people more familiar with the satellite and its launch preparations, actual launch, and on-orbit operations.

Venus is a similar planet to earth and rotates around the Sun, but Venus's rotation orbit is a bit closer to the Sun than that of the Earth. Venus is believed to have been formed in a similar process to the Earth's formation about 4.6 billion years ago, hence the two planets are thought to be like twins. However, the environment on Venus is quite different from that of Earth. There are no oceans there, and its atmosphere consists of heavy carbon dioxide that causes the greenhouse effect to make Venus a tropical heat world of 460 degrees Celsius. Up above Venus, clouds of sulfuric acid are swiftly flowing at a speed of 400 km per hour.

The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C) is the world's first planetary meteorological observation satellite to unveil the mysteries of wind on Venus. It will explore the mechanism of the Venus climate by observing the atmospheric movement and cloud formation process. Ultimately, this mission aims to deepen our understanding of the formation process of the Earth's environment and its future by comparing Venus and the Earth.

The H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 17 with the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" and the Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator "IKAROS" onboard left the Vehicle Assembly Building at 6:01 a.m. on the morning of the 17th (JST, 4:01 p.m. CDT Sunday) and arrived at the Launch Pad 1 at 6:25 a.m. JST.

We will load propellant to be ready for the launch at 6:44:14 a.m. on the 18th (Tue., JST, 4:44:14 p.m. CDT Monday).

Credit: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27328From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 05-17-2010 04:53 PM
JAXA update

Launch Postponement of Venus Climate Orbiter 'AKATSUKI'

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency would like to announce that we have decided to postpone the launch of the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" by H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 17 as we observed clouds including a freezing layer that exceeded the restrictions for suitable weather.

The launch was originally scheduled for May 18, 2010 (JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center.

We will inform the new launch date as soon as it is determined.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27328From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 05-18-2010 09:34 AM
JAXA update

New Launch Day of Venus Climate Orbiter 'AKATSUKI'

After studying weather conditions from tomorrow, we decided to carry out the launch at 6:58:22 a.m. JST on May 21, 2010 (4:58:22 p.m. CDT May 20) because the weather is expected to recover in that time frame.

The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and, at about 27 minutes and 29 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the Akatsuki was confirmed.

Credit: JAXA

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27328From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 07-07-2010 09:40 AM
JAXA release

Orbit Control Maneuver Result of the Venus Climate Orbiter 'Akatsuki'

The Venus Climate Orbiter "Akatsuki," which was launched on May 21, 2010 (Japan Standard Time), turned on the orbital maneuvering engine (OME) to jet 500 Newton (N) of thruster on June 28 (JST) at a distance of 14.6 million km from the earth or 1.06 astronomical units (AU) from the sun.

As a result, we have successfully performed on-orbit verification of the ceramic thruster, made of silicon nitride (Si3N4) for the first time in the world. The thruster was newly developed in Japan.

This thruster is a liquid rocket engine using hydrazine and nitrogen peroxide, and it is mainly used for retrofiring when the orbiter is injected into the Venus orbit.

The thrust emitted this time is not only for adjusting the access to Venus, but is also an imperative operation to evaluate the thrust characteristics of the engine for Venus orbit insertion. As a result of our detailed orbit tracking by the JAXA Uchinoura Space Center, JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center, and NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) stations, we have confirmed that about 12 meters per second of velocity correction was performed by 13-second firing of the OME, and that met the range of the scheduled orbit control.

The next orbit control (fine adjustment) is scheduled in early November, and Akatsuki will go to the nearest point of Venus and be injected into the Venus orbit on December 7 (JST).

Currently, the explorer and its onboard devices are working properly, and the Ultra-Stable Oscillator (USO) was also found to be functioning well to achieve the frequency stability as expected in addition to the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI,) 1µm Camera (IR1) and Longwave IR Camera (LIR,) whose initial functional verifications were already completed on the launch day evening.

The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA) performed Venus orbit insertion maneuver (VOI-1) for the Venus Climate Orbiter "Akatsuki" at 8:49 a.m. on December 7 (Japan Standard Time) but unfortunately, we have found that the orbiter was not injected into the planned orbit as a result of orbit estimation.

The "Akatsuki" was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on May 21, 2010 (JST).

JAXA has set up an investigation team led by ISAS Director within JAXA to study the cause of the failure. We will update you with the countermeasures and investigation results.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27328From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 12-08-2010 04:38 AM
JAXA Dec. 8 update

Akatsuki Venus orbit injection plan to be reviewed

JAXA found that we have failed to inject the Venus Climate Orbiter "Akatsuki" into the planned Venus orbit after conducting the Venus orbit insertion maneuver (VOI-1) on December 7.

While we set up a new investigation team to study the cause and countermeasures, we will also review the Venus orbit injection plan again to take the next opportunity in six years when the Akatsuki flies closest to Venus.